


Alternately the Same

by ami_ven



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Community: 100_tales, Episode Tag, Episode: s03e06 Point of View, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-19 22:45:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2405633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’re probably the only person who could understand.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alternately the Same

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "100_tales" prompt #087 "answers"

“How do we do it?” Sam asked, abruptly.

Dr. Carter— Samantha, she had said to call her, to avoid confusion— looked up. “I’m guessing you don’t mean getting me back to my own reality?”

Sam shook her head. “Sorry. Sorry, it’s just… even knowing where our timelines diverge, I’m still having trouble accepting that you’re me. Or that I’m you.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” said Samantha. “Although, I am kind of getting used to your hair.”

“Yeah,” Sam repeated. “It’s just… Colonel O’Neill…”

“Ah,” said Samantha, sadly. “Jack.”

“If you don’t want to talk about him, I understand—”

“No, no, I’d like to,” said her alternate self, with a bittersweet smile. “You’re probably the only person who could understand.”

Sam felt herself flushing pink. “But the colonel and I aren’t… you know.”

Samantha arched an eyebrow at her. “Are you telling me that the first time you saw that man in his full dress uniform, you didn’t feel tingly all over?”

“I—” Sam began, blushing harder.

The other woman grinned. “I thought so.”

“Nothing happened and nothing will happen,” Sam continued, stubbornly. “He’s my commanding officer.”

“Exactly,” said Samantha. “Automatically off-limits. Luckily, my Jack didn’t have that problem.”

“He,” Sam winced, preemptively, but couldn’t think of a better word, “ _pursued_ you?”

Samantha laughed. “Oh, yes. And persistently, too. I didn’t make it easy for him.”

“But, if he wasn’t your CO…?”

“I might not have been a military officer, but you know us, Sam. I had a job, a career. I didn’t want to be ‘Mrs. Colonel O’Neill’. I didn’t want to make the same mistakes Mom did.”

“Is she dead, in your reality?” Sam asked, softly.

Samantha nodded. “Yeah.”

They were quiet for a moment, then Sam shook her head. “But you did marry him. The colonel. What made you change your mind?”

“Jack did,” said Samantha, smiling again. “For all his talk about not liking scientists, he always valued my input. He treated me like a scientist _and_ like a woman, and he was attracted to both sides of me. And when we started getting serious, he didn’t expect me to drop everything to start a family. In fact, he had started talking about retiring and being a stay-at-home dad. Before…”

Sam closed her eyes. She’d given up wanting a family when she’d joined the Air Force, she wasn’t naïve enough to believe she could do them both and do them well. Better not to have kids than to miss half of their lives and let them grow up to hate her. But it seemed that Jack O’Neill was the exception to most of her rules.

“Thank you,” she said, softly, after a moment. 

“Carters, how goes the genius-ing?” Jack stopped in the lab doorway, grinning. “Carters?”

Samantha smiled back. “We’re making some progress.”

“Excellent. Then you can stop for something to eat. Something quick,” he added, when they both looked about to protest. “C’mon, Carter, there’s blue Jell-O.”

Sam smiled, too. “Sounds good, sir.”

THE END


End file.
